I'm a lifelong fan of popular Western music. I've recently been inspired to make a playlist of secular Western songs that carry a message consistent with the Buddha. Here is what I have so far, culled from my own library. I'd appreciate suggestions and favorites of yours!

-Cat Stevens, Morning Has Broken: vaguely Christian, but focused on the beauty of the here and now. this song has centered me since I was quite young-Flaming Lips, Do You Realize?: "do you realize that happiness makes you cry? do you realize that everyone you know one day will die?"-George Harrison, All Things Must Pass: such a beautiufl song. "sunrise doesnt last all morning, the cloud burst doesnt last all day. seems my love is up and has left with no warning. it's not always going to be this gray"-John Lennon, Watching the Wheels: "I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round. you know i love to watch them roll. no longer riding on the merry go round, i just had to let it go"-Bob Dylan, "When You Gonna Wake Up": ok, this is very Christian, but most of the lyrics can apply to a Buddhist values, and the recurring verse is certainly consistent with Buddhism. such as, "you can't take it with you and you know it's too worthless to be sold. They tell you 'time is money' as if your life was worth it's weight in gold"-Bob Dylan, "Mississippi": "every step of the way, we walk the line, your days are numbered so are mine. time is piling up, we struggle and we scrape, we're all boxed in nowhere to escape" /// another good passage: "well my ship's been split to splinters and its sinking fast, I'm drowing in the poison, I've got no future got no past. but my heart is not weary, it's light and its free, i've got nothing but affection for all those who've sailed with me". // this song is really more about world weariness than it is about any sort of enlightenment, but i find it very moving and centering-Paul Simon, "Love is Eternal Sacred Light": "I’m just a raindrop in a bucket, A coin dropped in a slot. I am an empty house on Weed Street. Across the road from the vacant lot. You know life is what you make of it. So beautiful or so what"-Simon & Garfunkel, "Leaves that are Green": "Once my heart was filled with love of a girl I held her close, but she faded in the night Like a poem I meant to write And the leaves that are green turn to brown And they wither with the wind And they crumble in your hand"-REM, "Flowers of Guatemala": a beautiful, simple meditation on flowers that bloom at night. very centering for me.

My avatar is one of many calligraphies painted by my teacher. Mitra Bishop, Roshi. She has them for sale to try to raise money for her building project. Also, if you purchase books on Amazon, you can use Amazon Smile and put in Mountain Gate (In Ojo Sarco, NM) and a small % will go to the monastery.

How about Leonard Cohen, who spent the late 90s in a Zen monastery? Some of his poetry deals more explicitly with that experience (Book of Longing, 2006). His song lyrics often have a mixture of strong Jewish or Christian themes, along with a large dose of confessions of overindulgence, and broken relationships, but out of that mixture there are some Dhammic echoes:

Time to change has come and goneWatched your fears become your godIt's your decisionOverwhelmed, you chose to runApathetic to the stunnedIt's your decisionYou feed the fire that burned us allWhen you liedTo feel the pain that spurs you onBlack insideNo one plans to take the path that brings you lowerAnd here you stand before us all and say it's overIt might seem an after thoughtYes it hurts to know you're boughtIt's your decisionYou feed the fire that burned us allWhen you liedTo feel the pain that spurs you onBlack insideIt's your decision

It's your decision

No one plans to take the path that brings you lowerAnd here you stand before us all and say it's over

It's over

Please send merit to my dog named Mika who has passed away - thanks in advance

I Can't Get No Satisfaction! Perfect!! I was thinking of it more as a "yeah, well that's because you're a dumb materialist" song, but I suppose that's the point of it? Definitely adds some energy to these other songs.

Also, the Beach Boys song is beautiful!

What do you guys think of the Van Morrison song Enlightenment? Seems like he didn't bother learning a whole lot before he went on and wrote a song about it... It's funny in that way. And he named the entire album Enlightenment!

Although Johnny Cash's country-western music has a persistent Christianity theme, some of his songs could be considered Dhamma-ish. Someone started a thread somewhere on DW, but I remember two songs off the top of my head: "In Your Mind" and "God's Gonna Cut You Down."

"As I am, so are others;as others are, so am I."Having thus identified self and others,harm no one nor have them harmed.

So erratic in search for the truthThe pain is strong and persistsSilence was just a diversion to come out on the hard truth againLeaving this world of illusions seen through the eyes of the innocentConfronted with the infinity of chaos, forcing you to rearrange

When your litanies are unheardPhantasm becomes coldly realThere's a thin line between the world of illusion and realityA purgatoric trip through the mirrors within youUnconsciousness beholden

Fear to face pass the border of pain, that burning contagionTo break, conquer and find lost beautyRinse, the penance is overI know now where to find the answerConfronting unconsciousness

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725